Lemon-Ginger Chicken Adventure

Steve and I had a great adventure making this for dinner on Monday night. He was getting ready to leave and I was making dinner. I was chopping up the raw chicken while the oil was heating to fry up the rice noodles. The oil was ready so I asked Steve if he would mind doing the noodles real quick (which, by the way, are so fun to watch if you do them one at a time! They do gymnastics in the oil and tie themselves in knots. Lots of entertainment value there.) He fried them and I got a bowl out for him to pour the oil into so that we could use the pan again and a little of the oil. I had a fleeting thought that plastic would melt so I got a glass bowl out and he began to pour and things we going along just fine ... until ... the bowl exploded! Don't worry - it's just glass and 400 degree oil flying everywhere... No problem...

We started cleaning it up and Steve went and got the kitty litter from the garage and poured that on the oil that was all over the floor - brilliant really! It soaked the oil up and then he swept the litter up and we didn't have to use a whole roll of paper towels to no effect. It was great.

In all the confusion I realized, albeit too late, that I had doubled some of the ingredients but not all because I intended to make extra sauce but I didn't remember where I had left off and didn't want to triple some ingredients and not others so I just stopped and used what I had already measured out. The result was a much spicier dish than I care for but everyone else liked it so I'm posting it that way. (I went back through after dinner and figured out what I had used.)

I told Steve he really might as well stay for dinner at that point. He agreed. Nick was here too but he left. I can't imagine why.

We served this with fried rice and yucky frozen cream cheese wontons. Ish. Really they just aren't even sort of like the restaurant wontons which are divine (no doubt in part b/c they have crab in them too...).

Oh yeah, I asked Mom to get baby corn and she came home with an assortment of canned corn, none of which were baby corn so we didn't add that. And I forgot to add the cilantro but figured it was a fair trade to leave it out since Mom forgot the baby corn.

We did all agree that it needs more sauce to go over the rice noodles but since I've messed with the ingredients already I'll let you experiment at your own peril with the sauce. Naturally I've renamed the dish to match our exciting cooking experience - and added a category to the blog.

Lemon-Ginger Chicken Adventure

vegetable oil for frying

4 oz rice noodles, broken in half

3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cubed

3 tsp lemon zest

4 tsp minced garlic

1/4 tsp ginger

1/4 tsp ground red pepper

1/2 tsp black pepper

1/2 C water

2 Tbsp cornstarch

2 Tbsp oil

6 ounces fresh snow peas, trimmed

1 can baby corn, rinsed and drained

1/4 C chopped fresh cilantro

2 Tbsp packed brown sugar

2 Tbsp fish sauce

1 Tbsp soy sauce

Heat 3 inches of oil in a wok or dutch oven until oil registers 375 degrees on deep-fry thermometer. Fry noodles in small batches 20 seconds or until puffy, holding noodles down in oil with slotted spoon to fry evenly. Drain on paper towels; set aside.

Combine chicken, lemon zest, garlic, ginger, red pepper, and black pepper in medium bowl. Combine water and cornstarch in small bowl; set aside.

Heat wok over high heat 1 minute. Drizzle 1 Tbsp oil into wok and heat 30 seconds. Add chicken mixture; stir-fry 3 minutes or until cooked through.

Add snow peas and baby corn; stir-fry 1-2 minutes. Stir cornstarch mixture; add to wok. Cook 1 minute or until thickened.

Add cilantro, brown sugar, fish sauce and soy sauce; cook until heated through. Serve over rice noodles.

Serves 4.